TCA to Focus on Recruiting, Trucking’s Image at Meeting

This story appears in the March 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

Driver recruiting and trucking’s efforts to burnish its image are getting top billing at the annual Truckload Carriers Association meeting this week in Grapevine, Texas.

Sessions are being held on driver pay, recruiting veterans and how carriers can develop a “driver-centric” culture.

“We live in a world of drivers, or lack thereof, and we’ve got to find ways to nurture them and get them to want to come to our industry,” said TCA’s incoming chairman, Shepard Dunn, president of Bestway Express Inc. of Vincennes, Ind.

“I don’t really think there’s a silver bullet out there,” Dunn said about the driver shortage vexing the industry. “It’s not like we’re just missing something. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, so the more we can do to educate our members on things they can do, the better.”

Dunn will succeed outgoing chairman Tom Kretsinger Jr., president of American Central Transport of Liberty, Mo.

TCA President Chris Burruss said the driver shortage is deeply entwined with what he called the “new economy” in trucking, now that the recession has ended.

“A lot of things are different, as opposed to previous recessions,” Burruss said. “I think this last one was particularly hard on the industry.

“Coming out now, certainly, carrier business is better but the big challenge is that the expense side still remains high,” he said. “Drivers can’t be found, so carriers are trying to figure out how to grow in the current climate, and it’s very difficult to do.”

One round-table discussion at the meeting, which runs through March 26, is devoted to “Recruiting Our Heroes” — how to transition armed services veterans into trucking.

The federal government has been working with states on programs to help veterans obtain commercial driver licenses. However, officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation told Transport Topics that they were not collecting any data on how well that effort was doing in getting jobs for veterans or drivers for the trucking industry.

“I’m not sure that it’s been very successful,” Burruss said of the government’s efforts. “Some carriers are successful in recruiting from the military on their own, some of the large ones or those that have a large presence around military bases for transitioning veterans.”

Dunn said that if he could find them, he would hire more veterans but that they’re “not flocking” to trucking.

Driving is a hard job, and many truckload carriers keep their drivers on the road for weeks, when returning veterans may not want to spend any more time away from home, Dunn said.

Ultimately, the driver shortage is “a lifestyle and wage issue,” he said. “It’s complicated, that’s for sure, and doing nothing is not the answer.”

On the final day of the conference, leaders of both TCA and American Trucking Associations will join together in a discussion of issues facing the industry and their respective organizations.

Dunn will join Burruss on the panel with ATA President Bill Graves and ATA Chairman Philip Byrd Sr., president of Bulldog Hiway Express in North Charleston, S.C.

“ATA and TCA certainly have common ground, and we just need to fertilize it a little bit,” Dunn said.

The area of common ground expected to be discussed includes the trucking industry’s image, “which is a big push now with both organizations,” Dunn added.

Policy and advocacy work are other areas of common ground, added Dunn, who has served as an ATA vice president at-large.

“A lot of our carriers on the TCA side are small, and what we want to do is, we want to teach them how to go through that process to talk to the leaders in TCA so that we can have a bigger voice over at ATA,” he said. “And they want to be heard, and I think they need to be heard.”

The panel is a departure from past TCA conventions, where the ATA chairman has given a solo address. The change was Byrd’s idea, Burruss said.

The event will give “our members an opportunity to ask any questions of the ATA side, voice any concerns if there are any out there,” Burruss added.

During the convention, TCA is presenting its annual awards for leadership, safety, the top driver and the top owner-operator.

Also presenting awards at a March 25 ceremony and reception is Women in Trucking. Each year, WTA presents its Woman of the Year award to someone who has made outstanding contributions to the industry.

Much of the exhibition hall will be filled by the growing number of technology companies, including several showing electronic logging devices after the federal government’s unveiling this month of its proposed rule to require them in all trucks.